This house is a home

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“We should get a new house!” My four year old exclaimed as we were driving in the car. “Why?” I asked him, “we just bought our house a few years ago and it is an amazing house.” “I don’t know,” he answered, “I just want to live in a new one.” 

“Well, our house has everything we need and more. And we have tons of space to run around” I told him. After asking me how much the house cost, he got distracted and moved on to another topic. That short conversation left me thinking, how do I show him that this is not just any old house? How do I convey to him all the love I see in our home when I look around it?

We haven’t lived in this house for very long, but we have already made it a home. Sure, the white paint on the front porch might be peeling, and the deck might need re-staining. But that porch is full of plants that my husband lovingly tends to, and it is also the place where every “first day of school” picture has been taken. Our house might be far away from everything, and it takes us a lot of driving to get to places. But this is the house where two sets of small feet run up and down the hallway every day, laughing and yelling with glee.

This house is a home.

This house is a home - Corpus Christi Moms Blog

This house holds my big, beautiful kitchen, where I have cooked everything from Kraft Mac and Cheese to my grandmother’s family recipes. This is the house where two weeks after having my baby, the hot water heater went out, and we all went weeks without hot water. (Thus this is also the house in which my husband learned how to fix a hot water heater.) This house survived Hurricane Harvey and the addition of a new baby and a foster dog. Sure, our rooms might be a little small and I may wish that my bathtub was much bigger. But those small rooms hold echoes of bedtime stories told and honest, important conversations between people who love each other.

This house is a home.

This house is a home - Corpus Christi Moms Blog

 

We may not live near a park, but this old house has an outdoor playscape that my husband created with his own two hands. And we don’t live close to a grocery store, but we have a garden we planted and my two year old is elated to eat tomatoes off the vine. Our house may run too hot in the summer, but it has shown us that the peace and quiet of building a life in the country was worth leaving a city we loved. This house has held family functions and hosted sleepovers with friends who feel like family. Our home has been the celebration spot for my children’s birthday parties, 4th of July get togethers, and many joyful Christmas mornings. Sure, the floors might creak and we may wish we could paint the walls another color (one day), but this house is where my baby learned to walk and where my toddler became a big brother. And if those off colored walls could talk, they would tell you that the paint is chipped in the hallway from a little boy ramming a dump truck into it, and the couch cushions are dented from one too many wrestling matches with daddy. 

This house is a home.

This old house is not full of fancy, expensive things. But our house is full of laughter, and warmth, and stability. It is a safe place to land. And most importantly, this old house is always full of love. To me, it will never just be a house.

This house will always be home.